How the Affordable Health Care Act Killed My Health Insurance

In September 2013 everyone I knew was talking about and worried about having health insurance. My smug answer wasI have health insurance, good health insurance.

But in October I got a letter from my health insurance company saying as of December 31st (it was later changed to December 26th) my health insurance was cancelled because it did not meet the requirements of the new law. I called my employer only to be told they would not be offering anything to take its place. I live inVirginiawhere Medicaid was not expanded.

I spent October trying to get onto Healthcare.gov. We all know how well that went.

Then President Obama said we could have our old insurance back for a year. I called to find out my health insurance company was not going to extend their services for that year.

Finally, on December 1st, I made it onto Healthcare.gov and found the plans were horrible. I couldn’t understand why everyone was so excited. Yes, I got a tax credit and yes, it lowered the premiums but the out of pocket was still double what I would normally pay and the policies on my list did’t start paying for anything until you meet a large deductible.A $6000 deductible. And there was only one insurance company offering services. I repeat … one company to choose from. I spent two hours on the phone with that company only to be told I had read the descriptions correctly. (The explanations on the website are hard to understand.) They would not cover any service until the deductible was met.

(I live inRockinghamCounty.) Then I found out that the companies are chosen by counties. Counties? If I lived five miles down the road in the next county (Augusta) a person of my income can chose from several different companies where my tax credit would pay the entire premium and the plan offers copay visits and prescriptions before you meet your deductible. (I even called that company and they said they could not sell to me because of my zip code.My zip code? Are you kidding me?)

So … I can pay double my normal expenditure for something that is never going to pay a cent of my medical care or I can pay the penalty for not having insurance and not get sick (and we all know how that goes). The Affordable Health Care Act killed my health insurance. Let’s hope it hasn’t killed me.

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